News

December 31, 2015

So here's a bit of inside baseball: The core of the downloads article is actually written on Wednesday night, because we get the downloads from Europe on Monday and Nintendo of America usually updates the website during the day Wednesday. Normally this works, but when Nintendo's on a holiday break... Read more...

December 28, 2015

The next Splatoon map releases tonight, and it's going down quite deep.

The Piranha Pit will release at the traditional update time this evening, and is a stage with a lot of mining conveyors that can change the flow of battle and provide height advantages. The mine is in a lake, so players will need to watch their step lest that first step cause an unforced errror.

December 24, 2015

As we first reported yesterday, Super Mario Galaxy is the main - in fact, the only new game this week for North America. The actual best Nintendo console game of the 2000s brings grand adventure, tricky platforming and the best princess in the Nintendo lineup, so be sure to pick it up.

The next Splatoon weapon update will arrive to splat kids over an open fire.

The Rapid Blaster Pro Deco will arrive at the traditional update time, and will add a touch of class to one of the game's longest range weapons. The quick fire rate and long range is balanced by a slightly lower power.

December 23, 2015

Although tomorrow's Wii U downloads will be light, but there will be plenty of jumping plumbers.

Nintendo's North American website has updated to show Super Mario Galaxy - the original Wii title - will come to the Wii U eShop as a download tomorrow for the standard downloadable Wii price ($19.99... Read more...

The Super Mario Maker 1.3 update went live on Tuesday morning, bringing the new elements and world records previously promised to the game. The web portal also went live and can be accessed at supermariomakerbookmark.nintendo.net for all your... Read more...

December 18, 2015

A couple of new items will be dropping this weekend, one just in time for a great battle and the other to coincide with a recent Japanese Virtual Console release.

Splatoon will get another addition to the combat roster tonight at 9 p.m. Eastern as the Tri-Slosher Nouveau will be available at Sheldon's. The Slosher variation has a Seeker sub-weapon and the Echolocator as a special.

December 17, 2015

Splatoon continues to set sales records in Japan, and Nintendo's throwing a giant party to celebrate.

NCL has announced the title has crossed one million copies sold since tht title's launch on May 28 in Japan. The last MediaCreate figures have the title at apprxoimately 915,000 disc sales, meaning... Read more...

The next major update to Super Mario Maker will bring the promised web portal and a few new creation tools.

Launching Monday evening in North America, the update will add Super Mario Maker Bookmark, the online service that allows for searching and tagging of levels. The courses added on Bookmark will go to a special tab in Course World. The update will also show the first person to clear a course, as well as the fastest clear.

Well, it finally happened; after six years of development, four years of console releases and a multi-billion dollar buyout by a console competitor, Minecraft is FINALLY hitting the Wii U. Our leading authority on all things Steve Andy Goergen has written a buyer’s guide on the subject, and his review will come soon.

December 16, 2015

An update will release tomorrow night to bring the game to version 2.4. According to the patch notes provided by Nintendo, the key features will be improvements to level matching and removal of several exploits. Rainmaker mode has also seen several changes,... Read more...

Pokkén Tournament’s Japanese website has been updated to include a Japan exclusive Wii U bundle. The bundle comes with a black 32 GB Wii U system, a copy of Pokkén Tournament, a special booklet, and a Dark Mewtwo amiibo card. The game and the bundle release on March 18th, 2016, with the bundle going for 36,000 yen.

December 14, 2015

November's US sales had a few surprises and some disappointments for Nintendo systems and games.

In terms of hardware, the Wii U sold at about a similar level to the same time last year with Super Smash Bros, selling approximately 240,000 consoles in November largely due to the Smash Splat bundle.... Read more...

The maintenance will begin at 5:00 p.m. Pacific time (8 p.m. Eastern) and is slated to run for approximately 10 hours (until 3 a.m. Pacific/6 a.m. Eastern). "Certain network services" will be affected.

It isn't clear why the maintenance is taking place at the time it is - it's slated for working hours in Japan, and most maintenance sessions are about 12-24 hours later.

December 11, 2015

After defeating the likes of Ifrit, Bahamut, and series newbie Amateratsu, players can summon them in battle.

Get ready to fight to Bahamut and Shiva in Final Fantasy Explorers and then, when they're defeated, have them join your party as powerful summons. In total, 12 summons, or "eidolon guardians," are featured in the game, including two (Amateratsu and Dryad) that are brand new to the series. See below for the full list: